Fishbone has been part of my musical DNA for a long time. I finally saw them for the first time at No Values Fest in California in 2024, but seeing them in New York, on my home turf, during the In Your Face 40th Anniversary Tour, felt like something I had been circling for years. They did not disappoint.

Planta Industrial opened the night and set an unexpected tone. The Bronx-based Dominican-American duo delivered a DJ-driven Punk set that fused Bachata and Reggaeton with hard-edged alternative energy, a collision of sounds that had no business working as well as it did. Their self-described “Punk Wave” sound gave the room something to chew on before the main event arrived, and the crowd responded with genuine curiosity and heat.

Then Fishbone took the stage and turned Brooklyn Bowl into an episode of “This is your life, with Fishbone.” This is not the classic lineup most people picture when they think of Fishbone. Angelo Moore, the singular force at the center of everything, founding member since 1979, handles lead vocals, saxophone, theremin, and percussion, and remains as untameable as ever. Alongside him, Christopher Dowd, also a founding member, back in the fold since 2018 after a long absence, anchors the keys, trombone, and vocals with the kind of institutional knowledge that cannot be faked. Tracey “Spacey T” Singleton returned to guitar in late 2024 after a two-decade gap, and the chemistry came back with him. The newer additions, bassist James Jones, drummer Hassan Hurd, and trumpeter JS Williams, all joined within the last two years, and none of that showed. What showed was a band playing with complete trust in each other, moving through tempo changes, genre collisions, and full-band dynamic shifts like a unit that has been running the same plays for decades. The tightness was real, and damn well earned.
Twenty songs across forty years of material, the set functioned less like a concert and more like a history lesson of one of the most restless and criminally underappreciated bands American music has ever produced. “Post Cold War Politics” opened things up and immediately reminded everyone what Fishbone does better than anyone else. Ska Punk, Funk, and Soul collide into something that feels completely inevitable. The band moved through “When Problems Arise,” “Cholly,” and “A Selection” with locked-in precision, and the room felt every transition.

“Give It Up,” “In the Air,” and “Turn the Other Way” kept the momentum pushing forward before “Party at Ground Zero” cracked the room wide open. “Skankin’ to the Beat” brought Cheyanne Moore to the stage and added another layer to an already stacked night. Then “Drunk Skitzo” arrived, and Angelo Moore went crowd surfing, which is the only appropriate physical response to that song, and the crowd caught him like they had been waiting all night for exactly that moment.

     

“Everyday Sunshine” gave the set a brief exhale before “Sunless Saturday” closed everything out, reminding everyone to fuck racism, leaving the room standing in it. Sadly, I didn’t get to hear “Swim” this time around. The song is one of the heaviest and hardest tracks I’ve ever heard. They still owe me for that one. But what this set delivered in its place was something harder to manufacture than a single song. It delivered the full arc of a band that has never stopped moving, never stopped swinging, and never made it easy on themselves or anyone listening. Forty years in, Fishbone are exhausting to watch and keep up with, and still play like they have something to prove. 

 

Buy Fishbone music and merch here:
https://amzn.to/3PjCCQK

Buy Planta Industrial music here:
https://linktr.ee/Planta.industrial 

 

OMAR CORDY
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